As announced on 11 June, David Garbutt has taken up his new role as our Chairman. The skills and experience he brings to the role are considerable and wide-ranging. He has held senior roles with Lothian and Borders and Grampian Police, and was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the 2001 New Years Honours. He was Assistant Inspector of Constabulary before his appointment as Director of the Scottish Police College between 1998 and 2006. He has been a member of the Board of the Scottish Leadership Foundation and the Justice Sector Skills Council and has also served as the President of the European Police College. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. In addition, he has extensive experience of working with the FBI in relation to counter-terrorism programmes and is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute. He currently chairs the Peeblesshire Committee of Macmillan Cancer Support and is an advisor for a number of international police reform and training programmes.

Pauline Howie began her career with CSL Group in London, working mainly with the Health and Local Government Sectors. Having qualified as an accountant in 1990, winning the Richard Emmott Memorial Prize for Best Performance in the Case Study Paper, she returned to Scotland and joined the NHS in Glasgow as Project Accountant with the Glasgow Royal Infirmary Unit. She joined the South Glasgow Unit in 1992 as Deputy Director of Finance and helped in its NHS Trust formation. In 1996 she was seconded to the Scottish Executive Health Department as Head of Trust Finance, and later that year joined the State Hospitals Board for Scotland as Finance and Planning Director.

Pauline joined the Scottish Ambulance Service as Finance Director in March 2000, also taking responsibility for Information and Communications Technology, Fleet Services, Procurement, Planning and Performance management and Risk Management. Pauline became Acting Chief Executive in May 2008 and was appointed Chief Executive in September 2009.

David Alexander has 21 years experience of Scottish Local Government behind him, six yeas of which (2001-2007) as Leader of Falkirk Council. He served on several boards including NHS Forth Valley between 2001 and 2007 during the period of the Acute Strategy Review that saw the development of the new Forth Valley Hospital at Larbert.

Mr Alexander was also Cosla's first ever spokesperson on Best Value and currently holds the post of the SNP's Convenor for Local Government.

Moi Ali is an author and Communications Consultant who has written a number of best selling books on public relations and marketing, which have been published by leading publishers such as Dorling Kindersley and translated into languages as diverse as Russian, Hungarian and Spanish. She is also an experienced board member, having served two terms of office on the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the world’s largest healthcare regulator, where latterly she was Vice President. She also served two terms on the Board of Postwatch and is a former member of NHS Lothian. Currently Moi is Chair of the Centre for Health and Wellbeing, a registered charity and social enterprise company, and a member of the Lord Chancellor’s review bodies, which investigate complaints about judges and magistrates. She is also a Governor at Edinburgh Napier University and a Public Appointments Ambassador for the Cabinet Office, a role which involves encouraging a more diverse range of applicants for public appointments.

Matt Bell joined the Scottish Ambulance Service after leaving the army in April 1981. Matt has been an active union member since then, representing staff members of the former T&G.W.U. now Unite the Union for the past 20 years. Matt works as an Ambulance Technician for the service. He is a firm believer in Partnership working and is also the Joint Chair of the National Partnership forum and chair of the National Staff Governance and Remuneration Committee.

Suzanne Dawson is a self-employed marketing consultant and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Before setting up her business in 2001, Suzanne was head of marketing at Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian (SEEL). She is currently Chair of the Borders College Board of Management and has served on the board since 2001. She is also Chair of the Board of BC Consulting, the commercial arm of Borders College and is a director on the board of the Association of Scotland`s Colleges, a membership organisation with the role to represent and support the college sector.

Ms Theresa Houston has a broad based business background in both the public and private sectors. She was Chief Executive of Scotland the Brand, a specialist marketing organisation set up to promote Scottish products and services at home and overseas and was previously with ScotRail, where she headed up customer services and a number of strategic change-management initiatives. She is currently a non-executive member of the Board of NHS Education for Scotland.

Christine Humphries chairs the Clinical Governance Committee and is a member of Patient Transport Board. Christine is also Vice Chairman of Scottish Borders Valuation Appeal Committee. She spent 30 years in Local Government, working as a Social Worker and Manager in a number of NHS settings and then in policy, planning and performance management. She has a long standing commitment to joint working and consumer involvement. She is a Due Regard Member of the Registration and Conduct Sub Committees of the Scottish Social Services Council and is a Member of the Scottish Borders Valuation Appeal Committee.

Doug Marr spent 30 years in Commercial, Audit and Financial roles with Marks and Spencer plc. Latterly as Financial Controller he was involved in Leading and Managing Change in Scotland, Northern England and Ireland. Doug is not involved in any political activity and does not hold any other ministerial appointments.

Andrew Richmond was formerly a number one rated stockbroking healthcare analyst in the City of London, and most recently was a director of Covenant Healthcare, a private healthcare provider, which was sold in April 2005. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, is married with two small children and lives in Angus. Andrew is also a Non Executive Director of NHS Tayside.

Dr George Crooks is currently the Medical Director of the Scottish Ambulance Service where he is responsible for Clinical Governance and the development of new services in partnership with other NHS organisations. George also holds the post of Clinical Director/Chief Operating Officer for NHS 24.

George was a General Practitioner in Aberdeen for 22 years and his past appointments have included Director of Primary Care with NHS Grampian with responsibility for all community-based independent contractor services. George has a particular interest in the field of unscheduled care and telephone based assessment and triage. Current areas of interest for George include the use of technology to support the delivery of high quality patient care to the population of Scotland.

Pamela McLauchlan has worked in the NHS for over 30 years, commencing her career as a Prosthetist/Orthotist after gaining her degree at Strathclyde University in Prosthetics and Orthotics. She developed her clinical career presenting papers at International conferences and having articles published in reviewed journals and also managed a department at Perth Royal Infirmary. In her spare time she also studied for a further degree from Queen Margaret College (now University). Then in 1996 she was accepted on for the NHS in Scotland National Management Training Scheme where she then trained as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant whilst gaining financial experience with Kirkcaldy Acute Trust. After qualification Pamela has then developed her financial career, working with KPMG, NHS Fife and NHS QIS. Pamela joined the Scottish Ambulance Service as a secondee in July 2007 as the Interim Director of Finance for a six month period and then returned to the same position in June 2008.

Shirley Rogers has 20 years experience as an HR professional. After graduating with an Honours Degree from Newcastle University in 1986, she began her career working in Central Government in London and from there moved to both the private sector and the Police Service. Shirley joined the Scottish Ambulance Service as Director of Human Resources in 1996. She is responsible for personnel, education and training, corporate affairs, patient focus and public involvement; health and safety and clinical development, including new ways of working, and she leads a number of projects under the 'Delivering for Health' agenda. Shirley also holds a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a member of the Institute of Directors.